Hey everyone! We finally made it to the second to last post in the series. Has anyone been inspired yet? Let me know by sending me messages through the contact page on this blog or message me using social media at any of the links below. I can’t wait to hear of all the great inspiration and help this blog has been to everyone. Without further ado….
Inspiration: Writing Friends
Writers by nature, are generally (but not always) introverted and tend to keep to themselves. Because of this, writers can often feel rather lonely in their writing which can sometimes make writing difficult. Sharing your writing with your friends and family is also good but nothing is quite like sharing your writing or talking about writing with another writer like yourself. Having a writing friend, although not vital to a writer’s life, can definitely make their life better. It also can help to inspire you to do better as a writer.
As far as I can tell finding other writers to talk to and chat with is the easiest through a writing group of some sort. When I first started writing I found it difficult to join a writing group because one of the biggest parts of writing groups is sharing your writing and I didn’t feel confident enough to share my writing with anyone who wasn’t my family. I wouldn’t say that I necessarily became comfortable with sharing my writing with others, but I became more comfortable with reminding myself that when I received criticism or corrections on my writing it wasn’t because they didn’t like me or my work, it was because they understood what it was like to be a writer and they wanted to help me to become the best writer I could be.
With that being said there are many advantages for inspiration when finding a writing friend, no matter what age that friend is or where they are on their writing journey.
Spring Boarding
One of the first ways that a writing friend can inspire you is for spring boarding ideas. For anyone not familiar with the terminology let me explain what this means. If you’ve ever seen a springboard, you will know that it’s a board with some sort of springing mechanism so when you throw something on it, or press on it, it will spring back into position, usually throwing the object off and in an arc through the air. If you have multiple springboards set up together than the object can continue to bounce back and forth.
This is the general idea with spring boarding ideas with another writer. Of course, to begin spring boarding with another writer you first need an actual idea to throw at the metaphorical springboard. It doesn’t have to be a big idea or even anything dramatic. It could be something as simple as, I want to write a book where the dragon dies. With your writer friend, who will usually think differently than you with the idea because they don’t have any preconceived notions about it, can take that idea and start adding to it or asking questions as it springs back and forth between the two of you until it is a fully formed book idea, concept, or plot.
This kind of inspiration is a secondary inspiration, because, like I mentioned before, you need to already come with the basic idea. But it’s also a good source of inspiration for people like me who, upon writing a story, soon realize that they have written themselves into a corner and being stuck in the box of the story I can’t see any other solutions. Having a writing friend (or even just a friend who really enjoys reading) can help you find ideas in the story that you could not see yourself from inside the box of the writer.
Attend Writing Conferences
Writing conferences are a great place to expand your skills and knowledge as a writer. I have written a post about writing conferences in the Writing Resources and Tools series and you can read more about writing conferences here.
But no matter how great a writing conference is it can still be very intimidating for a young writer or even a veteran writer. There are often a lot of people that you have never met before and you might be going to a place that you have never been to before. Writing conferences can be a very intimidating place when you are attending. However, having a writing friend can help you to feel more confident to attend a writing conference.
This post is supposed to be about inspiration however, and you’re probably thinking, “But J.M., what does having a writing buddy at a writing conference have to do with inspiration.” I would say, “That is a good question.” And here is the answer.
Often times in the workshops of a writing conference you can listen to the different skills or devices of writing and you can wonder, “How is this helpful for me?”. Sometimes you can’t see how its helpful and other times you can. I have found that having a writing friend, who knows what my story is about, can be very helpful in moments like these. You can help each other out by listening to the lecture and noticing things that might help not only your story but the story of your friend who attended with you and often these ideas can inspire you in many different ways from anything to changing a writing style, to adding a whole new subplot you had never thought of before.
Learn From Writers of Different Genres
Having a writer friend who specializes in a different genre can also help to inspire you either when you are writing or when you don’t have an idea of what to write. Sometimes a writer of a different genre can simply inspire you to write a new genre that you have never tried before. On the other hand, sometimes another writer can simply see something in your writing that could be improved by using a skill or writing technique of a different genre of writing than the one you are used to.
I once had a writer friend who generally wrote mystery novels. I was writing a fantasy novel at the time and after reading a passage that I was really struggling to write my friend found the problem for me. The scene wasn’t hitting quite right because my foreshadowing wasn’t done well, it was too obvious in one spot and too subtle in another. My friend, who wrote mystery, was able to help me become better at writing foreshadowing although I still have a lot to learn.
Share Your Writing
The next piece of writing advice I have for how to gain inspiration from a writing friend is one of the scariest things for most writers to do, and that is to ask for advice from another writer by sharing your writing.
Sharing your writing is a scary thing to do for any writer although some to have more anxiety over it than others. I have some friends who fall on one side of the scale of finding it nerve wracking but fun to exchange writing with others. I also know there are writers like me who are more terrified of sharing their writing with anyone either because they can’t stand criticism because their writing is their precious baby or because they don’t ever think their writing is good enough.
Sharing your writing with other writers is beneficial for some of the same reasons that the other things in this list are helpful. Writers can have different perspectives and ideas than one another and when we do, we are able to create a more unique and interesting story but incorporating things from other writers.
For example, sometimes when writing a story, you write a scene because you like it and want to add it and not because it actually really fits with the plot perfectly or the character motivation. Another writer reading your writing can help you out by showing you the problem with your writing and making it easier for you to recognize when you do things like that. I know I frequently write a scene because I like it and want it added. With the five-book series I’ve been working on for a while now I originally started writing it as a very short idea that evolved from where it was. However, I had always tried to keep the first idea somewhere in the story. After showing the writing to one of my friends they helped me realize that the original idea the story was based off of no longer fit with my storyline and by keeping it as a central part of book 2 I was throwing off the whole flow of my story. She was right. I was being sentimental about an idea that was no longer relevant to my story.
I hope that these four ideas for how to find inspiration through writing friends is helpful. I had a great time writing this one and remembering all the good times I had with different writing friends over the years. Next post is the last post in the Inspiration series, and I will be announcing the schedule going forward and the title of the new series. Make sure to tune in for that. Also, don’t forget to like, subscribe, become a blog page member, share, and follow me on social media at the links at the bottom of the website page. Remember,
Get Up, Get Writing, and Get Published. See you next week!
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